Now, to reiterate, the 50,000 words that are to be written basically constitute a rough draft, so that is what you will be looking at. You will read it as I have first written it: with no proofing or modifications. The only thing I have done is spell-check, so you may even run into some words that don't really belong. As you will be able to see, I am still having difficulty with the dialog thing, but hopefully, I will get the hang of it eventually.
Well, the excerpt you will read takes place just after the main character, Eric, finds out about the weird things that are happening in the house he has just inherited from his uncle. Pam is his girlfriend and Bob is the attorney handling the estate.
Eric caught himself looking up at the ceiling and decided that he wanted to take a walk upstairs. “Let’s go to a look at the upstairs, everybody.” So, they all got up and moved across the room and started for the stairs. “You know, Eric said, “this is actually a really nice house.”
“I agree,” Pam said.
They all walked up the stairs and looked around the room. At the very top of the stairs and to the immediate right was the bathroom, newly enlarged due to the remodel. It had a nice Roman tub, which would be great for taking a leisurely soak, if guys did that sort of thing. There were also two windows that gave-off spectacular views of the farm. The first window looked towards the South side of the property and the other window, which was the newly installed window and directly above my uncle’s old bedroom, looked towards the east.
Looking immediately to the left, you will enter the main living area of the second floor. It was a large, open room that was divided by a chimney going through the center. There were also two banks of windows on either side of the room; one set facing east and the other facing west.
Looking around, Eric stated, “Well, this doesn’t look so bad. Okay, we have footsteps and lights turning on and off, anything else?”
“As I said, that was just the beginning. There are a few additional things that your uncle mentioned. For example, he also mentioned that he heard voices, growls, heard banging, and even saw something, but he never would tell me what he saw.”
“I see,” Eric responded. “And did he ever tell you why he continued to stay here, if he heard and saw all of this?”
“Again, he never did tell me why he continued to live here. I imagine that it could be because it was his house and that it had been in the family for all those years. I just don’t know. Anyway, I figured that you should know about this.”
Eric said, “Well, I do appreciate you letting me know. I must say that if it hadn’t been for those weird dreams and the fact that my uncle has had the exact same ones, I would not have given this a second thought.”
“Well,” Bob said, “I felt that you should know. Now, why don’t you two take a look around the rest of the house and then we’ll take a little hike in the woods; there’s something else that I would like to show you.”
Made it to 18,440 yesterday but brain dead today. Now what? If I edit out what...Hummm...could I add a character at this point?...Should I create another "bad guy"? How about a dream sequence or flashback? Stumped and need coffee, I think.
ReplyDeleteGood Luck to you, Tim!!
I would imagine it's rather daunting to write a novel but it sounds like you're doing a great job. You must be working so hard that Koko has to pitch in and help out around the house huh? Good thing he's good at climbing ladders!
ReplyDeleteOk so now I'm already interested in the story. I want to know more, I need to know what his uncle saw and heard...lol
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I think you are off to a good start. When I start a book if it doesn't grab me in the first paragraph I usually don't finish. What you posted here has me wanting to read more.
Sounds like a good start. It had me wanting to know more and read more! Looks like Koko was a big help on that ladder.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely sounds like a good start. You can climb right to the top with this... just like Koko. ;)
ReplyDelete